Jane The Virgin Season 3 Episode 7 Recap: Chapter Fifty Two

Jane the Virgin or Jane the Person Who Really Hates Bruce, or my favorite alternate title: Jane the, is finally back! After what actually feels like forever. I really missed this show. Over the weekend, I pictured the Villanueva women road-tripping to DC for the Women’s March, and it was almost as amazing as tonight’s episode, “Chapter Fifty Two” with references to Beaches and Michael doing a Jerry Seinfeld impression. Like Jane, Beaches was one of my favorite movies. And like Michael, I like to talk out of my own butt for eleven minutes. I was planning on writing a few sentences about where the show left off in the last episode of 2016, but the Narrator did it for me. Why did I expect anything else? Again, this show’s break was way too long for me. I missed the Narrator, often the light of my life. dearly. At the beginning of the episode, I was expecting an episode written in a similar structure to Beaches, and was both saddened and pleasantly surprised that they didn’t go that route. Especially considering the last episode was a pretty direct play on Alfred Hitchcock. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve seen Beaches, so maybe “Chapter Fifty Two” did do that and I just missed it. But I watched this entire episode, and there were no scenes with two best friends hanging out under a boardwalk. Ok, enough about Beaches. Back to the show I’m supposed to talk about! On Jane the Person Who Really Hates Bruce, everyone is the wind beneath someone’s wings. Which is surprising, because Jane is always meddling — no matter what Mr. Let It Bee (the second best character next to Rogelio) says. When it comes to Michael, she supports him no matter what. No meddling. Just encouragement. Of course, her primary reason for not being upset that he quit his job comes from her fear of him getting shot again, but that’s fair. She doesn’t want her husband to get shot again — she’s been through enough in her life already, or at least in the three seasons we’ve known her. And stand-up comedy is, generally speaking, harmless. Michael’s impressions were so enjoyable that I’m assuming this entire episode was written around Brett Drier’s hidden talent. Why did it take so long for us to see this, hmm? Jane’s meddling is one of her greatest flaws, but also what drives her character (and the show). If Mr. Let it Bee is in every episode, I might get bored. In Jane’s defense, her meddling makes sense. Bruce hurt her mom, and Catalina might hurt Rafael. And she hates seeing the people she loves hurt. But Jane isn’t the only meddler in the Villanueva family. Xiomara meddled in Bruce’s family life in the past, and tonight, tried to meddle in Rogelio and Darci’s friends with kids plan. The good thing is that the Villanueva Meddling TM often leads to happy endings, or in these cases, interesting narrative: Jane’s interference in Rafael’s relationship with God earlier in the season led him to the truth about his family — he’s not blood-related to a bunch of drug dealers/murderers anymore! Xiomara’s interference with Bruce brought his life back in order (despite his family falling apart), and her reluctance to trust Darci helped guide Rogelio into the erectile revelation that he has feelings for her. The wind beneath Petra’s wings? Paranoia. Sometimes it’s so hard to like Petra that I forget what she’s been through. But she was paralyzed and it was really, really horrible. I felt for her then, and i almost feel for her now...almost. Rafael doesn’t exactly deserve what’s coming, but he was absolutely in the wrong for taking advantage of her paranoid state when he lied to her about Scott. Good for her for starting her own investigation on her own, and for showering Rafael’s suite with little finger cameras. We learned a valuable lesson in this episode. The one thing that will stop Jane from embarrassingly involving herself in other people’s problems that she has no business attending to? Terrifying teenagers in miniskirts. For the first time since this show’s been on the air, I finally related to Jane more than Rogelio. I’d also like to take this one-time opportunity point out that Mateo is most definitely the wing beneath Mr. Let It Bee’s wings. That’s an end to the wind beneath wings metaphors — promise! I hope this isn’t the first and last appearance of that little puppet. Maybe he can star in his own remake of Beaches? A lot happened in this episode, so forgive me if in my first recap I missed some of the small stuff (Bette Middler puppet! Catalina is the worst cousin ever! Also, she is married! To an old guy?) But “Chapter Fifty Two” proved that the second half of this season will be a treat: from the Narrator’s less than subtle political commentary (“I’m with her!”), to Petra potentially taking The Marbella away from Raphael, to Michael going to law school. Oh, and also, maybe an update on Rose and Luisa in that submarine 20,000 leagues under a sea somewhere. Read These Stories Next:
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